POWER SUPPLY CHALLENGES

SOLUTIONS FOR INTEGRATING RENEWABLES

BY JACOB KLIMSTRA
HOW TO INTEGRATE RENEWABLES
TO MEET FUTURE ENERGY DEMAND?

Wind and solar energy are crucial to meet future energy demand and to cut CO2 emissions.
But we are just beginning to understand the technical challenges of integrating them into
decades-old power systems. With a large share of variable renewable energy, baseload will
disappear. Gigawatts of backup power need to be pushed online in a very short time due to
changing weather and forecast errors.

It is becoming widely understood that future power systems must be extremely flexible. What
remains under debate is the best means for flexibility. Much-hyped electricity storage, super-
grids and demand response may play a role in the future. With compelling scientific evidence,
Power Supply Challenges proposes, however, that fast-reacting gas-fired power
plants based on combustion engines are often the most credible solution.

The book combines empiric data with theory of power engineering. It reaches from detailed
electrotechnical analysis to system-level political and economical issues.
Avoid double energy costs. Renewables can easily raise the cost of electricity by
100%. This is due to reduced use and hiking capital costs of the remaining thermal power
plants. With flexible generation based on combustion engine technology, the cost rise can
be prevented. Agile power plants can reduce electricity costs by upto 50%, compared to
business-as-usual gas turbine scenarios.

Reduce CO2 emissions by 80%. Building more slow-reacting, inflexible gas tur-
bine-based generation will lock in huge future CO2 emissions. By contrast, investing in flex-
ible generation can reduce emissions to a fifth. This is possible as flexible power plants
facilitate more renewable capacity. In fact, they seem to be the best means to increase the
share of renewables.

Ensure reliability of power supply. Because renewable-based power systems

are instable, it is crucial to have reliable back-up power. Modular plant design with multiple
generation units in parallel offer reliability – if one of twenty units trips, there are still nineteen
fully available. This is not the case with traditional single-unit power plants.

The operation of power plants will change dramatically. Even with high
shares of wind and solar energy in the system, almost the same amount of thermal power
generation is needed than without renewables. But running the power plants will be very
different. Baseload will disappear. Only sharp demand spikes are left for thermal plants. Only
power plants with very fast start and and ramp rates can do this.

“Through his profound insight to energy issues, the

author succeeds to explain in an easy and under-
standable way the science and facts behind inte-
grating large amounts of variable renewables into
energy systems. He explains in an elegant way the
underlying physics and provides a lot of useful data.”

Peter Lund
Professor in Advanced Energy Systems
Aalto University
Finland

Read more at
www.smartpowergeneration.com
Wärtsilä Power Plants is a leading global supplier of flexible baseload pow-
er plants of up to 700 MW operating on various gaseous and liquid fuels.
Our portfolio includes unique solutions for peaking, reserve and load-follow-

DBAD051426/05.2014/Wärtsilä/Arkmedia
ing power generation, as well as for balancing intermittent power produc-
tion. Wärtsilä Power Plants also provides LNG terminals and distribution
systems for the entire value chain of LNG industry. As of 2014, Wärtsilä has
55 GW of installed power plant capacity in 170 countries around the world.

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“The author does a nice job to describe the “A timely book to demonstrate how to balance
changing character of electric power gener- the power supply and demand under very com-
ation while respecting the fundamentals and plex conditions, such as renewables integration,
working principles wof an integrated grid.” temperature variation and demand uncertainty.”

Thomas Key Chongqing Kang

Senior Technical Executive Professor in Electrical Engineering
Electric Power Research Institute EPRI Tsinghua University
USA China

“The book addresses both the challenges and

possible solutions for future power systems,
using clever illustrations and examples from
around the world. This book is a great refer-
ence for anyone involved in the energy industry.”

Michael Walsh
Director of Future Grids
Eirgrid
Ireland